Two things...

Two points regarding this commentary:

1. The possession, use, production, or distribution of marijuana is illegal in the United States. Period. If you want to change the law, change the law. Until that happens, though, these "medical marijuana" arguments that we need to help people before drugs clear the FDA are ridiculous. Why just apply this standard to marijuana and not any other drug? Why not release cancer-fighting drugs before they're fully tested? How about weight-reduction drugs? Both of these could potentially save huge numbers of drugs while the only "medical" application of marijuana is that it makes you hungry and feel good. We're not talking about saving people's lives, so why have a different standard from medicines which do save lives?
2. The suggestion that Federal agents be banned from enforcing federal law is ridiculous as well, particularly in light of the California pot den they raided last year. This facility, which operated under California's authority, was issuing and accepting fraudulent prescriptions, selling illegally produced and smuggled drugs, and had numerous unlicensed firearms - including a fully automatic assault rifle - on its premises. If the Feds can't raid this place, who can they raid?

Medical Marijuana: What's the Point?
Reason Magazine

Hit & Run commenters sometimes express skepticism about the medical marijuana movement, saying either that it's a cover for people who want to get high or that it concedes too much by acknowledging the government's authority to dictate who may use which drugs for what purposes. Since the House of Representatives is expected to vote today on the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would bar the DEA from spending money on raids, seizures, and arrests aimed at stopping the medical use of cannabis in states where it's legal, now is a good time to recall why this cause is important:

1. The basic right to control one's body and the substances that enter it surely includes the right to use marijuana (or any other home remedy) for symptom relief, even that is not all it includes.
2. The DEA's medical marijuana raids violate the Constitution, which gives states the authority to decide their own policies regarding intrastate production, sale, and consumption of marijuana. As Justice Clarence Thomas has noted, a reading of the Commerce Clause that's broad enough to encompass a marijuana plant on a cancer patient's windowsill in California is broad enough to encompass just about anything. More narrowly, it's hard to imagine how serious experiments with drug policy reform can occur as long as the federal government insists on imposing one uniform set of rules on the entire country.